BRAG WALL

You hate those email footers from people who include every award, membership and swimming certificate they’ve ever won. Nobody cares! It just makes it harder to read email conversations and wastes screen space.

Our email footers are deliberately as small as they come – just send me an email if you want to see for yourself. It’s got my phone number, address, a link to our T&C and a link to book a call in my diary. It doesn’t even include my email address because, er, it’s an email.

But it does leave us with the burning question…where do we showcase our awards and professional memberships which you might just be interested in before working with us. Or, let’s be honest, somewhere we can indulge ourselves (just a little bit).

Well, here they are, on our Brag Wall. Yup, it’s a horrible American phrase, but it seems to fit the bill here. And because it’s not taking up 80% of our email conversation, we’ve actually got space to explain why you might give a toss about the fact Blue Penguin has taken the time to gain these qualifications and recognition.

Click on the links to find out more about each organisation (external link opens in new window)

Anyone can call themselves an accountant – outrageously, it’s not a protected title! So how do you know your ‘accountant’ is any good? Simple: #ChooseChartered!

We’re Chartered Accountants, with a practising license from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) no. 3230491

It’s not easy to get – an intense three year course, followed by at least three years’ post-qualification experience. And, as the regulatory body for the profession, you can rest assured we keep up to date with all the required CPD and Professional Indemnity Insurance to boot.

(Whilst we’re in brag mode, Peter was awarded the highest mark in the South West for the Corporate Reporting paper in his final exams. So we really do know our stuff when it comes to looking after your company).

Pricing, eh? Everyone seems to think accountants just make up a price depending on how long they take on some arbitrary hourly rate. Sadly, lots do. It’s not cool, and we HATE it.

All our pricing is done using GoProposal. We take time to work out what your business needs and we turn that in to a simple monthly fee, broken down by each service. It helps your cash flow, it gives you certainly over what you’re getting and, best of all, there’s no surprise bills.

You won’t go away thinking ‘I wonder what the last person paid?’ If they had a similar business to yours, I can tell you the answer now: They paid the same.

The Association of Accounting Technicians is aimed at supporting the practical side of the accounting world.

You’ll find their members taking charge of the finance function in small businesses, as well as providing support to more senior Chartered Accountants in practice.

We look for AAT as a minimum qualification for all our staff. Many – including Peter – entered the world of accountancy as an AAT student.

Nothing to do with accountancy here, this is more about our commitment to the UK’s Armed Forces.

Blue Penguin has signed the Armed Forces Covenant, which at its core states that when recruiting new staff we will consider employing someone who is either a reservist, a veteran, or the spouse of someone on active service. We’re only a tiny firm so we’re pretty happy with Bronze!

But don’t think for a moment this is some sort of charity gesture. As we’re a 100% paperless firm, and don’t subscribe to the 9-5 ritual, our staff can work flexibly. from anywhere. We don’t mind if they have to work around the school run whilst their partner is serving. And we can work around the dates when a Reservist is giving up their time for their country. Get in touch if you’re good with numbers, we might have something for you.

The Association of Taxation Technicians – think “AAT for Tax”. They are practical tax people and ensure than on a day to day basis, you’ll get great advice to pay all the tax you need to and, er, none that you don’t.

The UK tax code runs to over 17,000 pages. We don’t know them all. What we do know is when to refer you to one of our trusted Tax Specialists who hang out in the obscure corners of tax legislation.

As with the other professional organisations, a practicing certificate from these guys takes a while – six examination papers followed by experience in practice. Look for a Chartered Accountant who has also taken the time to gain additional tax qualifications.

We’ve been with the Somerset Chamber of commerce for a couple of years now. They were kind enough to give us a two-page spread in the first edition of the magazine after we joined. We had some great feedback from that, and it certainly got our name ‘out there’.

We try and attend a SCC event at least every other month. If you’re not already member I would highly recommend it, especially if you work by yourself – it’s great to meet others in a very relaxed networking setting.